IShe RURAL NEW-YORKER 
1444 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THJ? J^rSISESS FAR.yfER'S PAPER 
A National Weekly Journal <'or Country and Suburban llomon 
Estaoiished iS50 _ 
PiiblUbKl w»»kly by the Hor»l Pob’’ 'ne Tonipany, 833 Wegt 80lh Street, \ew Tork 
Herbert W. Cola .ood, President and Editor. 
John J. Diuxi.v, Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wm. F. DniON, Secretary. Mrs. E. T. Royle, Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION ; ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
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order, personal check or bank draft. 
Entered at New York Post Office as Second Class Matter. 
Advertising rate.s, 75 cents per agate line—7 words. References required for 
advertisers unlmown to us ; and cash must accompany transient orders. 
“ A SQUARE DEAL” 
■We believe that every advertisement In this paper is backed by a respon¬ 
sible person. We use even? possible precaution and admit the advertising or 
reliable houses only. But to make doubly sure, we will make good any loss 
to paid subscribers sustained by trusting any deliberate swindler, irrespom 
Bible advertisers or misleading advertisements in our columns, and any 
such swindler will be publicly exposed. We are also often caUed upon 
to adjust differences or mistokes between our subscribers and hones^ 
responsible houses, whether advertisers or not. We willingly use our good 
offices to this end, but such cases should not bo confused with dishonest 
transactions. We protect subscribers against rogues, but we -vnll not be 
responsible for the debts of honest bankrupts sanctioned by the courts. 
Notice of the complaint must be sent to ns within one month of the time of 
the transaction, and to identify it, you should mention The Rubai, New- 
Yorker when writing the advertiser. 
Merry Christmas! 
F or 32 years now the writer has been saying these 
two magic words to readers of The R. N.-Y. 
Each year the family tie which binds our people to¬ 
gether has groAvn stronger, and now as we say 
‘•Merry Christmas" once more, the sentiment seems 
to have risen to the thirty-second degree! We doubt 
if there has ever been in all the history of journal- 
ism quite such a feeling as has grown up between 
the makers and the readers of The R. N.-Y. We 
know your loyalty to us, for it has been fire-tested 
again and again, and our ambition is to make your 
confidence equal to your loyalty. But—what’s the 
use? Old friends do not need to put their friendship 
out on parade. It will stand home consumption, and 
Ave are all going on together for another year! 
Merry Christinas, and may the Christmas spirit last 
iis long as oiir fidendship! 
r llE XeAC York dog license law! Several readers 
have had sheep and poultry killed by dog.s. 
Thider the nevr dog law the State is supposed to pay 
for this dog damage out of the money obtained for 
licenses. A good many people haA’^e signed and 
sAvoru to the necessary papers and await the pay¬ 
ment of their money only to find that they will get 
nothing until the Legislature meets. It seems that 
Ihe law states: 
The moneys paid into the State treasury Aiuder this 
section shall so far as necessary be airpropriated hy the 
legislature to be expended for enforcement of the provis¬ 
ions of this chapter and for the payment of compensation 
for damages caused by dogs to domestic animals or foAvls, 
as hereinbefore provided. 
There are over GOO claims for damages to live 
stock and foAvls, these claims aggregating about 
.‘?(10,000. About 90 per cent are for sheep killed or 
injured. Up to December 1 about $270,000 has been 
collected for dog licemses. Thus the State has of 
this dog money nearly five times the sum required to 
pay all damages, yet not one cent of it can be paid 
until the Legislature meets and acts. All Ave can get 
out of the authorities is that ‘dt is hoped that the 
T.egislature Avill act promptly.” There .should be a 
drove of good Airedales let loose upon the members. 
Some of the people who presented these claims are 
in sad need of the money, as dogs nearly put them 
out of bn.siness, yet AA’hile the dog bag of the Stiite 
runs over they must live on faith or go on charity. 
M'e do not eliminate hope entirely—being naturally 
of a hopeful disposition—but it is a .shame that this 
muddle of red tape should act as a barbed Avire 
fence to keep deserving people from their just dues, 
* 
Our M’ashiugton laAA’inakers haA’e reduced the price of 
food stuffs, the price of coal, the price of wheat, etc.; 
also haA’e levied heavy taxes on the excess war profits 
of various industries. It seems to me singular that no 
action has been taken to reduce the price of cotton or to 
levy taxes on the 300 per cent increase in cotton prices. 
Can you explain this oversight? A aviieat farmer. 
W E cannot ansAver, nor have Ave been able thus 
far to find anyone to give a .satisfactory 
1 ‘eason. The only suggestion offered is that Con¬ 
gress, as at present organized, is inclined to favor 
the .Southern States; that it feels that Southern 
farmers .should, as a matter of economics, be .spe¬ 
cially encouraged. No other I'eason has been given 
ns. If you have a better one, Ave Avant it. 
* 
T he fate of this New York school laAA’’ will be 
.settled in the State Senate. We already have 
enough promises from Assemblymen to make us feel 
that the Assembly will repeal or amend the laAV. 
T.ast year the bill had only two majority in the As¬ 
sembly, while only seven Senators voted against it. 
Thus the fight comes in the Senate, and will natur¬ 
ally center upon Senator Elon R. Bi’own of Water- 
toAA-n. He voted for the bill, and Avill neA?er permit 
it to be changed until the people convince him that 
lie has got to do it in order to save his own neck, 
and the neck of his party. And Senator Brown will 
not be convinced by reason or solid argument. He 
can easily shed that, but he cannot dodge 00,000 
drops of ink pricked into him hy fearless pens, and 
tinctured with the-’genuine feeling of earne.st men 
and women. We never ask onr readers to use 
postage stamps needlessly. In this case we give you 
fair warning that the only chance to repeal or 
change this law lies in controlling the State Sen¬ 
ate. Your only chance of doing that lies in convinc¬ 
ing Senator Brown that you will put this school 
question above party consideration when you next 
get a ballot in your hand. We all have here the 
finest chance to .show the poAver and punch of our 
Non-partisan League. One of our readers in Chau¬ 
tauqua County says: 
“Sp/'Oi/ Brown and his 200 B. O. ideas with ink!'' 
"We will, and Ave invite all of you to come right in 
on the job. Every man and woman in Noav Yoi-k 
w’ho is interested in this school laAV should Avrite 
Senator Brown. Be respectful, brief, firm and accu¬ 
rate, and show) him! 
* 
S INCE the article on those bogus apples (jiage 
1439) was Avi'itten we have received further in¬ 
formation. The barrel seems to have been mai-ked 
“unclassified,” and the groAver received $2.25 for it. 
The buyer paid .$5.50 as part of a large shipment. 
The retailer sold most of his purchase at 65 cents a 
peck, which makes $7.80 per barrel. Throw out a 
fair proportion as waste, and we still haA’e a 35-cent 
dollar, with the groAver paying for the package. 
* 
I N England they haA’e the same old problem of ap¬ 
pointing men AA’ith little knowledge of farming 
on committees Avhich are to regulate farm prices 
or methods. At a recent meeting of English farmers 
this familiar statement Avas made : 
The point was that there were four merchants and 
four factors on the control, and this body of farmers 
took exception to there being only four farmers against 
eight men whose interests were not on all fours with 
the farming interest. 
Here some of the ablest men in the nation have 
been put on committees to control or regulate things 
which are of vital importance to farmers. These 
large men are capable of handling the business side 
of most questions, but they have no personal .sym¬ 
pathy Avith farmers, and knoAV little about the real 
farming business. They do not and cannot I’epresent 
farming fairly, foi’, from its peculiar character, 
fai-ming cannot be measured and handled as other 
lines of business are. As we have pointed out be¬ 
fore, one trouble about this is the fact that most 
officers of so-called farm organizations are not farm¬ 
ers, and thus do not fairly represent country people. 
The remedy is to retire the laAvyers, bankei-s, mer¬ 
chants and landlords and put farmers at the head of 
farm organizations. Wliat is a farmer? As a rep¬ 
resentative of farming a farmer should he one Avho 
makes his primary living and supports his family by 
actual labor on the land! 
* 
T he average city man thinks he can take care of 
himself as long as he is under the electric light. 
Up to the end of the wire Avhicli carries the current 
from the central poAver the city man is full of con¬ 
firmee. When he gets off the line and has to pro¬ 
ceed by the light of a candle or a lantern he is all 
at sea and does not knoAV what to do. He has been 
brought up to have light and heat and power sup¬ 
plied through no effort of his oavu. He merely pays 
for it. When he gets into the country, AA’here it is 
an individual matter, he finds himself untrained in 
the first principles of business, because he does not 
know how to make his living as an independent in¬ 
dividual. He cannot find his way hy lantern light. 
Noav, one trouble Avith onr agricultural education can 
he figured out in about the .same way. Let the teach¬ 
ers and professors say Avhat they will, farm educa¬ 
tion has become more or less artificial and unfitted 
for plain farms—the kind of farms which must be 
depended upon to feed the Avorld. It is electric light 
farming, and not candle and lantern farming. That 
is Avhy many city raised boys who are educated at 
an agricultural college find themselves in trouble 
Avhen they get out on a real fai-m Avithout needed 
capital. So long as they keep on the line of the 
electric wire from the college they feel confident of 
success. When they are cut off and have to carry 
the lantern into dark places, they are in danger of 
losing their Avay. The college men Avill say that 
they favor extending this electric light out to every 
farm. So are Ave, but that costs money, and in most 
cases that money must he hunted with the lantern 
before it can be invested in electilcity. Can the col- 
lege, with its present environments, tell a boy hoAv to 
carry a lantern? 
Decembor 22, 1917 
KrXK FARMIXG! Mr. Cole’s note on poec 1452 
.states facts clearly and also brings bac. 
time incident. Nearly 30 years ago The R. N.-Y. 
printed a skunk-farming story which attracted AA’ide 
attention. It seemed like a short and easy road to 
AA’ealth, but the original skunk farm<'^ was arrested 
for maintaining a nuisance, and most of the skunks 
died in captivity. Then letters poured in upon us 
from all sides. We AV’ei’e held up as high ai.thorities 
on the skunk, until the correspondence became a 
nuisance! Then for the first and only time The 
R. N.-Y, denied the possibility of a farm operation 
AA’hich only needed development. We said skunk 
fai’ining was impo.ssible. Yet here Ave are at the 
clo.se of this year with fur farming in full blast, 
and more than 1,000 skunks as legitimate breeding 
animals in New York, with their OAvners licensed! 
The world has come to need the fur, and men have 
studied the habits of the skunk until, through ch’- 
ilization, he has become a useful citizen. We are 
noAV prepared to believe almost anything about farm¬ 
ing. If someone will claim that he is herding .sun¬ 
beams to be canned and let loose on gloomy days, 
Ave Avill not deny the possibility of it, though we will 
prevent the investment of money in the stock of 
any such enterprise. 
* 
A ll sorts of schemes for inducing small investors 
to give up their Liberty bonds are now appear¬ 
ing. On the stock market these bonds have been 
put doAvn to a little over 97 for some purpose not 
clear to the ordinary investor, who becomes a little 
frightened Avhen prices drop. Right at the time 
when these loAver figures are quoted people receh’e 
offers for the bonds. In one particular case an offer 
is made by a company which claims to be building 
ships. We are told of the great need of .shipping 
in order to supply our soldiers abroad, and great 
profits are figured on the enterprise. Then Ave are 
told that this company will take our Liberty bonds 
as payment. At first thought it seems good to 
change a four per cent bond for a 25 per cent invest¬ 
ment in a ship. A little study shoAvs that these 
(benevolent people are not offering us a ship, but 
stock in a company which may huild ships! There 
is a big difference hetAveen a ship and a share of 
stock. No man who is actually making 20 per cent 
out of a ship would ever change on equal values for 
a four per cent security. That pleasant act is re- 
.served for the man who has a stock of paper upon 
Avhich he expects to print stock certificates. They 
may in time be Avorth good money, or they may be 
valuable only for wall paper. A Liberty bond has 
behind it every dollar of value in this nation. Why 
exchange it for paper AA’hich has only Avliat it can 
capitalize out of the Avest Avind, the salt Avater and 
tli4* blue sky? 
S TEP hy step the government of this nation is 
building a barbed Avire fence around a “bone- 
dry” pasture and driving the entire herd of intoxi¬ 
cating liquors outside. The State of Idaho enacted 
a laAV AA’hieh prohibited anyone from keeping liquors 
for his personal use. This laAV was attacked on 
the ground that the State has no right to interfere 
with personal liberty in this Avay. Now the United 
States Supreme Court, through Justice McRey- 
nolds, settles the point. He says: 
The State has pow’er absolutely to prohibit manufac¬ 
ture, gift, purchase, sale or transportation of intoxi¬ 
cating liquors within its borders without violating the 
constitution. We further think it dearly^ folloAvs from 
our numerous decisions upholding prohibition legislation 
that the right to hold intoxicating liquors for personal 
use is not one of those fundamental privileges of a citi¬ 
zen of the United States which no State may abridge. 
A contrary view would be incompatible with the un¬ 
doubted power to prevent manufacture, gift, sale, pur¬ 
chase or transportation of such articles—the only feasi¬ 
ble Avays of getting them. An assured right of posses¬ 
sion Avould necessarily imply some adequate method to 
obtain not subject to destruction at the will of the 
State. 
This Avill jar many distinguished c’ ns, Avho 
have long considered it a “fundamental privilege” 
to hold liquor in their homes or in themselA’es! In 
Ncaa' Yoi’k State hard cider is now cla.s.sed as intoxi¬ 
cating liquor— Avhich it surely is! 
Brevities 
AV iiY not make a Christmas tree of yourself? 
In the Canadian election the women relatives of sol¬ 
diers Avere permitted to vote. 
Conservation of food is good, but never forget the 
conservation of mother. 
If you do not order your goods early this year you 
Avill be ordered to wait later on. 
The man AV’ho permits himself to be used as a door¬ 
mat Avill have to stand up later and let the men Avho 
Aviped their feet on him beat the dust out of bis coat. 
Better not have any coat than stand for that! 
They tell of the boy who said he worked in a black¬ 
smith shop. When asked if he could shoe hoi-ses he said 
he shoo’d flies. If he did that well he beat some groAvn- 
up men at the trade. 
